The sad turn against women in the U.S.

In 1988, Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight stated in an interview: “If rape is inevitable, why not sit back and enjoy it.”  As I reflect back on my teen years today, this moment stands out as one of my earliest “a-ha” moments about women in the United States and their legacy of second-class citizenship.   I still had U.S. history books that beyond a cursory discussion of Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman, the history and subject of women was relegated to foot notes and supporting roles in the birth and evolution of our country. In addition, I had grown up in a household that had the remnants of 1950s patriarchy –  my mom was both the mother in a somewhat June Cleaver-way but thankfully also a professional women working at both a prominent University as a professor as well as several hospitals in a leadership position (the symbolism and significance not lost on a boy growing up).  She represents that bridge between rampant misogyny of the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and the rise of first-wave feminism and discussions of equality.  But my dad certainly carried with him many of the biases of his generation: women are too emotional, are not natural leaders, not smart enough in science, head of the household and bringing home the bacon, blah blah blah.  And these biases have by no means disappeared and at times I have to question how much it has dissipated as well.

Thankfully I grew up in an era and a college town where these attitudes were quickly changing on many fronts: how girls/women were taught in schools, leadership roles in important local institutions, and the explosion in female attendance to university across all social classes.  Of course this was also against the backdrop of the defeat of the ERA, very few congresswomen and senators in national politics, one woman on the Supreme Court, and a glass ceiling a mile wide and a mile thick.  And I no doubt have to check myself as well, my most consistent slip into misguided and antiquated gender roles is when I turn into  the "protector" role where I try to solve the problem and is clearly based on old practices and assumptions I was socialized into at home and by society.  

But here we are in 2012, quite a few years forward and it feels like we are stepping back in time, does it not if you watch and listen to the proposed legislation coming out of Washington and across countless state legislatures?  Here are two quotes in the last week from prominent politicians:

“Just close your eyes.”  Tom Corbett, Governor of Pennsylvania, discussing the mandatory ultrasound bill for women.

“Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that.”  Mitt Romney, potential Republican presidential candidate.

I am utterly confused by this turn of events?